Louvre staff block entrances as part of pension protest

PARIS (AP) — The Louvre Museum in Paris was closed to the public on Monday when its workers took part in the wave of French protest strikes against the government's unpopular pension reform plans.

Dozens of Louvre employees blocked the entrance, prompting the museum to announce it would be temporarily closed.

The demonstrators toted banners and flags in front of the Louvre's famed pyramid, where President Emmanuel Macron had celebrated his presidential victory in 2017. They demanded the repeal of the new pension law that raises the retirement age from 62 to 64.

The showbusiness, broadcasting and culture branch of the CGT union tweeted an image of the Mona Lisa with an aged and wrinkled face, with the words: “64 it’s a No!”

Fleming stars as `Nixon in China’ arrives at Paris Opera

PARIS (AP) — After spending decades portraying generals' wives, a countess and a courtesan, Renée Fleming walked gingerly onto the stage of the Bastille Opera in a blond wig, red coat and black gloves to depict Pat Nixon, former first lady of the United States.

John Adams’ “Nixon in China,” a 1987 work among the most acclaimed American operas, received its Paris Opera premiere on Saturday night to eight minutes of applause following a revelatory production by Argentine director Valentina Carrasco that replaced literalism with metaphor. The lasting images were of a dark American eagle pitted against a bright red Chinese dragon and of ping-pong tables symbolizing both diplomacy and the quest for superiority.

“You really have to be in your mid-60s to even remember this other than as it’s something that you learn about in school,” said Fleming, a 64-year-old soprano who bid farewell to the standard repertory six years ago. “I’m sorry, but in the context of what’s going on now, Watergate doesn’t seem quite as horrific as it did at the time.”

Thomas Hampson, a 67-year-old American baritone, starred as President Richard Nixon, complete with hunched shoulders and a sweaty face he repeatedly dabbed with a white handkerchief. Hampson broke out Nixon’s stiff V-for-victory motion with arms outstretched during curtain calls.

Tale of two pandemics on display

A free, interactive exhibit in downtown Winnipeg tells a tale of two pandemics.

Art duo Gilbert and George get their own gallery in London

LONDON (AP) — Artists, if they have really made a mark, might get a gallery dedicated to their work once they are gone.

Gilbert and George don’t want to wait that long.

The dapper duo, who have been creating beguiling and unsettling art together for over half a century, have poured their own time and money into the Gilbert and George Center, a permanent exhibition and research space devoted to their work. Located just off bustling Brick Lane in London’s East End, the building opens to the public April 1 with an exhibition of the big, bold photo assemblies for which the pair has become famous.

Admission is free — and that, they say, is important.

Review: Broadway’s ‘Bad Cinderella’ gets lost in the woods

As you settle into your seat at Broadway's “Bad Cinderella,” the subtle sound of piped-in birdsong greets you. Enjoy it while you can. The next few hours will be a frantic onslaught.

The show that opened Thursday at the Imperial Theatre is a hyped-up, over-caffeinated fractured fairy tale that loses its way in the forest and wastes some of the nicest melodies Andrew Lloyd Webber has written in decades. It's lewd and smugly arch and increasingly tiresome.

The titular star — a fine Linedy Genao — plays a so-called rebel in the beauty-obsessed town of Belleville, set somewhere in a France that has bikini waxes and also swordsmen. She doesn't wash her hair, eschews manicures and even spray-paints “Beauty Sucks” on a statue of Prince Charming. What a rebel! She is clearly the creation of old people.

The book by Emerald Fennell nominally tries to argue that conformity and surfaces are the enemy but doesn't have the verve to finish that argument, ending up with a musical that would have been mildly progressive in 1995.

Once a TV show, ‘Smash’ to make its Broadway bow in 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — The glitzy, fictional Broadway musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe that formed the heart of the TV show “Smash” will make the leap to an actual Broadway stage next season.

Producers said Wednesday that “Smash” is slated for Broadway in the 2024-25 season, welcome news to many of the show's fans and the Broadway community who embraced its look at the inner workings of their industry.

“'Smash' is near and dear to my heart, and it was always my hope that a musical inspired by the show would eventually come to the stage,” said lead producer Steven Spielberg in a statement.

The new book for “Smash” will be co-written Tony-nominated Rick Elice, who penned “Jersey Boys,” and Tony-winner Bob Martin, who won for “The Drowsy Chaperone.”

Van Zweden to end NY Philharmonic tenure with Mahler’s 2nd

NEW YORK (AP) — Jaap van Zweden will conduct Mahler’s Second Symphony in his farewell concerts as the New York Philharmonic’s music director from June 6-8, 2024, ending a season that will spotlight the 100th anniversary of the orchestra’s Young People’s Concerts.

Van Zweden succeeded Alan Gilbert as music director in the 2018-19 season and announced in September 2021 that the 2023-24 season will be his last. Gustavo Dudamel will take over but will not start until 2026-27.

The 62-year-old van Zweden will be joined by soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller and mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova for Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony.

Starting its second season in the rebuilt David Geffen Hall, the orchestra will open its season Sept. 27 with van Zweden and cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Beethoven’s “Egmont” concerto, Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italien” and Dvorák’s cello concerto.

Hearts of Freedom and Canadian arms open wide

In 1979-80, more than 60,000 southeast Asian refugees came to Canada. Among them was Stephanie Phetsamay Stobbe, then seven years old.

Caribbean mythology inspires new Black opera

TORONTO - A new Black Canadian opera brings to life a story of resilience, amplified by hopeful arias and performers drawing from their own experiences in facing obstacles.

The Tapestry Opera and Obsidian Theatre co-production titled "Of The Sea" is written by Kanika Ambrose and composed by Ian Cusson. It is a story of Black fatherhood and the lengths a parent would go for their child.

Ambrose, a Toronto-based librettist, playwright and screenwriter, says prior to writing "Of The Sea" she didn’t know any operas that were in English.

“Everything I’d seen at the Canadian Opera Company was in some European language,” she said.

Patience pays off as northern Manitoban composer gets in step with rhythms of seasonal change

Kerey Harper is learning to be patient with himself.

The 26-year-old musician from St. Theresa Point First Nation — a remote community accessible only by ice roads or plane — creates electronic dreamscapes inspired by weather, seasonal changes and nature.

Moon-based send-up of influencers speaks to all generations

Frances Koncan’s Space Girl is a story of firsts.

Broadway production of 'Room' delayed indefinitely

The stage adaptation of Irish-Canadian writer Emma Donoghue's novel "Room" won't show on Broadway next month as planned, after a lead producer pulled out of the project.

The remaining producers of the show say rehearsals shut down on Thursday — less than three weeks before performances were set to begin on April 3.

Producer Hunter Arnold says he and his colleagues "exhausted all possible avenues to keep the show on track," but found the challenges "insurmountable."

He says the team is "heartbroken" for the cast and creative team.

Dafoe’s ‘Inside’ asks how art helps us escape isolation

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Willem Dafoe has said that, for him, the process of making a movie always eclipses the finished product.

But after more than 130 film credits, the 67-year-old actor has finally found a project whose final form is on par with the experience of creating it.

“When I watch this movie, I say, ‘Okay, I feel like I’m there again,’” he said. “Although there’s lots of stuff that we had invented that gets cut out, it feels like the making of it.”

That assertion is impressive, given how much “Inside,” Vasilis Katsoupis’ fiction directorial debut, asked of its lead and virtually only actor.

Stephen Sondheim’s last musical finds a New York City stage

NEW YORK (AP) — The late Stephen Sondheim's last stage musical — an adaptation of two films by Spanish surrealist director Luis Buñuel — will be given an off-Broadway stage this year, offering theatergoers a chance to see a new work by musical theater’s most venerated composer.

“Here We Are” — once known as “Square One” — will begin performances this September at The Shed’s Griffin Theater with a book by David Ives, best known for the play “Venus in Fur.” Joe Mantello, who helmed “Wicked” and Sondheim's “Assassins,” will direct.

The show — based on the films “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “The Exterminating Angel” — was initially workshopped in 2016 with plans for a production at The Public Theater, which did not happen.

The two source films have a connective tissue: In “The Exterminating Angel,” a group of guests arrive for a dinner party and cannot leave, while "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” is about guests who constantly arrive for dinner but are never able to eat.

‘For those who have sensitivities, they’ll all be stomped on,’ Dean Jenkinson says of upcoming comedy fest

The Winnipeg Comedy Festival is ready for a staring contest with cancel culture.

Prof’s transition journey inspiration for play

For Winnipegger Ben Baader, transitioning took two forms — from female to male and from being a secular Jew to an observant and practising Orthodox Jewish believer.